Wild Weather

Rain

• By the time raindrops reach the ground, they can be anywhere from one hundred to one thousand times larger than they were inside the cloud.

• The biggest raindrops are only about the size of a pencil eraser.

• It takes at least one million cloud droplets to form one raindrop.

• Only about one cloud in ten will ever part with a single raindrop.

• Raindrops are not really shaped like tears. With their rounded tops and flat bottoms, large raindrops actually look like the tops of hamburger buns.

• Larger raindrops fall to Earth from 16 to 20 miles per hour.

• Tiny drizzle drops can take an hour to fall one mile.

• Freezing rain falls as a liquid and then freezes when it touches something cold, such as a tree branch.

Hail

• Hailstones can be smaller than a kernel of corn or bigger than a grapefruit.

• In the United States, hail causes $1 billion in crop losses and property damage each year.

• The largest hail ever measured was 17.5 inches around and weighed 1.75 pounds.

• In Kenya, Africa, on average, it hails 132 days a year.

• In Dubuque, Iowa, a hailstone containing two frogs fell to the ground. When the ice melted, the frogs hopped away.

Snow

• Each year in the United States, there are about one hundred major snowstorms that last an average of two to five days.

• Blue Canyon, California, gets the most snow-about 240 inches each year.

• The average snowflake measures about 0.5 inch across.

• The largest snowflakes ever measured were 15 inches across.

• A blizzard is a heavy snowstorm or blowing snow with winds above 35 miles per hour and lasting at least three hours.

• A typical snowflake is made up of 180 billion water molecules.

• There are millions of ways these molecules fit together, which is why it is rare to find two snowflakes that are alike, but not impossible.

• Since all water molecules have six sides, every snowflake has six sides, no matter how the molecules bond together.

Thunderstorms & Lightning

• Right now there are about 2,000 thunderstorms happening on Earth.

• About eight million lightning strikes happen every day around the globe.

• In very strong winter storms, you sometimes find thunderstorms that make lightning, thunder, and snow.

• Most people struck by lightning in the United States are men.

• Lightning can be hotter than 50,000 degrees. That’s hotter than the sun!

• It takes thunder about five seconds to travel one mile.

• One lightning flash has enough energy to light a light bulb for three months.

• A lightning stroke can travel ten miles from the thunderstorm.

• Most people who are struck by lightning are hit before the rain starts or after the rain ends.